Monkey Bread Muffins

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

These Monkey Bread Muffins are made completely from scratch in under 2 hours with plenty of gooey butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon for a warm and comforting homemade treat! This simple but fun treat would be a great baking project for a quiet day at home!

Monkey bread muffins in a metal muffin tin.

Want a winning Christmas morning brunch recipe? These individual serving mini monkey breads are made completely from scratch with an easy yeast dough. Each piece of dough is dunked in melted butter before being coated in a cinnamon and brown sugar mixture. They bake up beautifully with an extra soft and fluffy texture with the gooey and caramel-like mixture on the bottom.

For other must-bake breakfast treats, be sure to visit my Lemon Cream Cheese Turnovers or Marbled Banana Bread. If you love cinnamon, be sure to try Overnight Cinnamon Buns or my Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread!

Jump to:

⭐️ Why You Need to Make This Recipe
🧈 Ingredients
📃 Instructions
💡 Top Tip
❓ Recipe FAQs
🥣 More Cinnamon Recipes
📖 Recipe

Interior of a monkey bread muffin topped with icing.

⭐️ Why You Need to Make This Recipe

Flavor - Cinnamon, brown sugar, and salted butter baked with a simple yeast dough and finished with a creamy icing.
Texture - Soft, fluffy pieces of homemade dough coated in a mixture of butter and brown sugar that melts on the bottom of the pan to create a caramel-like texture.
Serving - These monkey bread muffins would be perfect for brunch on Christmas morning or anytime you are craving a sweet homemade treat!

🧈 Ingredients

Here are the ingredients needed to make these individual serving monkey breads from scratch.

Ingredient Notes

Flour - It is best to use bread flour to make this recipe for the most soft and tender dough texture but you you use all-purpose flour in a pinch!
Milk - You will need to warm the milk to around 110℉ to provide a nice warm environment for the yeast to work in. If you don't have a thermometer, this is a nice lukewarm temperature to the touch.
Yeast - This recipe requires instant yeast (also called quick-rise yeast). This is different from active dry yeast.
Brown Sugar - Either light or dark brown sugar would work.
Icing - A simple but rich and creamy icing made of powdered sugar and whipping cream makes these monkey breads even more special and delicious. Of course, you could use milk instead if you don't have cream on hand!

See the recipe card for the full list of ingredients with measurements.

📃 Instructions

Warm water, yeast, sugar, salt, and oil whisked together in a glass mixing bowl.

Step 1: Whisk together the warm water (110℉), instant yeast, sugar, salt, and oil just until combined.

Step 2: Add the bread flour and mix just until a loose dough forms.

Kneaded dough before rising in a glass bowl.

Step 3: Knead for 1-2 minutes or just until a smooth, soft dough comes together.

Step 4: Cover and let rise in an oiled bowl for 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size.

Forming the monkey breads with dough, melted butter, and cinnamon sugar in a muffin tin.

Step 5: Deflate the dough. Cut off small pieces of dough, dip in the melted butter, and then roll in the cinnamon sugar. Place pieces of coated dough in a greased muffin tin, filling each cup with 6-7 pieces.

Filled muffin tins with monkey breads before baking.

Step 6: Distribute all the dough evenly between all 12 muffin cups. Pour leftover butter over the monkey breads.

Bake in a preheated oven for 12-17 minutes or until bubbly and golden. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing from the pan and topping with the icing.

To make the icing, whisk together the powdered sugar and enough whipping cream to drizzle over the slightly cooled monkey breads.

Monkey bread muffin on a piece of parchment paper.

💡 Top Tip

This would be a great recipe to double if you need to serve many people! Simply double all the ingredients and use two 12-count muffin tins to bake them all.

❓ Recipe FAQs

Why do they call monkey bread monkey bread?

Monkey bread gets its name from the way you snack on it like a monkey.

What does monkey bread taste like?

Monkey bread tastes like a cinnamon rolls with flavors of cinnamon, butter, and brown sugar.

How do you serve monkey bread muffins?

Monkey bread is great served with breakfast or brunch or as an indulgent snack!

How do you store monkey bread?

Monkey bread is best served fresh and warm but any leftovers may be stored covered at room temperature for up to 2 days.

🥣 More Cinnamon Recipes

Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:

If you tried these Mini Monkey Breads or any other recipe on my website, please leave a ⭐️ star rating and write a little note telling me how it went in the comments below. Thank you!!